Cardiac magnetic resonance: is phonocardiogram gating reliable in velocity-encoded phase contrast imaging?

Objectives: To assess the diagnostic accuracy of phonocardiogram (PCG) gated velocity-encoded phase contrast magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).

Methods: Flow quantification above the aortic valve was performed in 68 patients by acquiring a retrospectively PCG- and a retrospectively ECG-gated velocity-encoded GE-sequence at 1.5 T. Peak velocity (PV), average velocity (AV), forward volume (FV), reverse volume (RV), net forward volume (NFV), as well as the regurgitant fraction (RF) were assessed for both datasets, as well as for the PCG-gated datasets after compensation for the PCG trigger delay.

Results: PCG-gated image acquisition was feasible in 64 patients, ECG-gated in all patients. PCG-gated flow quantification overestimated PV (Δ 3.8 ± 14.1 cm/s; P = 0.037) and underestimated FV (Δ -4.9 ± 15.7 ml; P = 0.015) and NFV (Δ -4.5 ± 16.5 ml; P = 0.033) compared with ECG-gated imaging. After compensation for the PCG trigger delay, differences were only observed for PV (Δ 3.8 ± 14.1 cm/s; P = 0.037). Wide limits of agreement between PCG- and ECG-gated flow quantification were observed for all variables (PV: -23.9 to 31.4 cm/s; AV: -4.5 to 3.9 cm/s; FV: -35.6 to 25.9 ml; RV: -8.0 to 7.2 ml; NFV: -36.8 to 27.8 ml; RF: -10.4 to 10.2 %).

Conclusions: The present study demonstrates that PCG gating in its current form is not reliable enough for flow quantification based on velocity-encoded phase contrast gradient echo (GE) sequences.

Key Points: Phonocardiogram gating is an alternative to ECG-gating in cardiac MRI. Phonocardiogram gating shows only limited reliability for velocity-encoded cardiac MRI. Further refinements of the post-processing algorithm are necessary.